This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for weaving webs such as tapes used for slide fasteners. More specifically, the invention relates to improved method and apparatus which can weave a web with small loops of a filling formed between a latch needle and the adjacent edge of the web.
Needle looms are well known in the art and have been accepted commercially. In a conventional needle loom, a filling carrier is placed at one side of a bunch of warp ends and adapted to reciprocally swing so as to deliver a filling through each of successive sheds from one side to the other of the bunch of the warp ends. At the other side, a latch needle is provided to pick up the filling. The filling carrier and the latch needle cooperate so that a segment of the filling extends through each shed from one side of the warp end bunch to the latch needle at the other side and then back to the one side of the same. In the conventional needle looms, latch needles can not be placed close to the adjacent edges of the woven webs, since the one in each bunch of warp ends closest to a latch needle interferes with the reciprocal movement of the latch needle placed close to the adjacent edge of a web. Therefore, loops formed between the latch needle and the edge of the web are necessarily large. The large loops not only make the edge of the woven web rough but also make the knitting action of the latch needle unreliable, since removal of loops from the needle is not facilitated by large loops.